The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to award his business COVID-19 supplier grant relief. This is because the complaint is late and there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to award his business COVID-19 supplier grant relief he believes he was entitled to for the period April to June 2020.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) We cannot question whether an organisation’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council about its decision not to award supplier relief in June 2020 and received a response dated 12 August 2020, however he did not refer the matter to us until 23 May 2022. His complaint is therefore late.
I have considered whether to exercise our discretion to investigate the matter but I have seen no good reasons to do so. Mr X believes the Council should pay his company more than £350,000 and given the circumstances we would have expected him to raise the matter with us sooner.
The Council has also explained that Mr X did not qualify for the scheme because he did not meet the criteria, and Mr X has provided nothing to dispute its position on this point. It therefore seems unlikely we could criticise the decision.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and I have seen no good reasons for the delay in bringing the matter to us. There is also not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman